Swimmers from the City of Bradford club have had success in meets at Portsmouth and Leeds.

A group of senior members travelled south for the Easter Swim Festival while younger competitors attended the Leeds Age Group Meet.

It was the first time Bradford had attended the Portsmouth meet with some of the country's top swimmers taking part, notably senior British champions Margarita Pedder (200m butterfly), Katie Sexton (200m backstroke) and Simon Militas (400m IM and 200m backstroke), plus many top age-group swimmers.

Bradford had to wait until the last swim of the meet to gain their first gold medal which came in the boys 14-15 years 100m freestyle.

Mark Gilhooly, qualifying fifth fastest for the final, stayed with the race leaders and came home in the same time of 56.03 seconds as Charlie Ticehurst of Brighton for a joint first place.

Mark was third in the 200m freestyle and fourth in the 400m freestyle, both in national qualifying times.

Double silvers went to Steven Broadley in the 1500m freestyle and 200m butterfly. The 1500m was outside his best time but the 200m butterfly was a personal best of 2 min 8.43 sec.

Steven's time was the second fastest ever swim by a Bradford competitor for the event.

In his last swim of the meet Steven went under one minute for the first time for the 100m backstroke in a time of 59.49.

Bradford's Emma Collings won silver in the 400m freestyle and bronze in the 800m freestyle. She set a national time for the 200m butterfly with a time of 2-32.02.

Seventeen-year-old Diana Steele from Halifax was fourth in the 100m and 400m freestyle in 1-00.63 and 4-32.34 respectively. Diana also took part in the 50m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 100m breaststroke and produced personal best times for all her swims.

At the Leeds Age Group meet, Bradford swimmers gained four gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.

Twelve-year-old Katie Ford won double gold for the 50m freestyle and 100m backstroke in best times.

Other swimmers taking gold were 12-year-olds Jamie Harrison for the 200m freestyle and Amy Fisher in the 200m backstroke, again achieving personal best swims. Jamie also took silver in the 50m and 100m freestyle plus bronze in the 100m backstroke and Amy won silver in the 200m backstroke.

In a return to form, 14-year-old Sarah Taylor swam a best time of 1-16.04 for second in the 100m backstroke and 30.71 for bronze in the 50m freestyle.

Sixteen-year-old Neil Farmer experimented with some distance events and was second in the 400m IM and third in the 100 and 200m backstroke.

Also taking silver and double bronze was Omar Hussain (14) for the 200m breaststroke, 1500m freestyle and 200m backstroke.

Bradford's last medals of the meet were silvers for Lauren Mooney and Marcus Sahebjam both 12, for the 200m breaststroke and 400m freestyle.

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